Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities - Laurel, Mississippi

Laurel, Mississippi , the second county seat for Jones County, was founded in Mississippi’s pine belt in 1886. The town dates from 1881, when the Southern railroad laid its tracks there. This railroad brought attention from the national timber market, and Laurel soon became a regional industry center. By the turn of the century, Laurel milled and shipped more yellow pine wood than any other town in America. In 1902, the Gulf & Ship Island Railroad opened up the town to real prosperity. Laurel improved its streets, built parks and schools, and the city organized the first Garden Club in the state. Laurel’s economic prosperity motivated the arrival of Jewish settlers, who opened stores catering to the town’s timber workers and their families. By 1900, there were nine Jews in Laurel, the nucleus of a small but vibrant community to come.

Early merchants: The earliest Jews of Laurel, Mississippi arrived as itinerant peddlers in the 1890s and gradually began building businesses in the town. The Jewish community grew and became more and more embedded in the town. One prominent Jewish family in Laurel were the Fines. Nathan, Louis, and Joe Fine founded and operated the Fine Brothers Store, which sold shoes, cloth, and other general goods at highly discounted prices. Later, Harry Fine, an orphan who grew up in the New Orleans Jewish children’s home, and who was not related to the other Fine brothers, joined them as a business partner. This business was eventually merged with another Jewish business, Laurel Adrun, which was owned by Dave Matison, and became Fine Bros.-Matison. Other Jewish stores included Lefkowitz &Weinberger, who advertised that their fall suits were the “prettiest line ever displayed in Laurel.” This store was built by Jewish Congregants Nathan Weinberger and Pincus Lefkowitz, who came to Laurel from Meridian. They were not only master tailors, but also socially popular. Weinberger was known for provodong dance lessons to the young socialites of Laurel.

Community relations:The population peaked in 1927 with 74 Jewish residents. Though small in number, they were a visible part of the community. Each year, on the high holidays, Jewish merchants would run ads explaining why they would be closed for business on those days. In 1907, the first time the new Jewish congregation observed the high holidays, the Laurel Chronicle ran an article describing the religious significance of the holidays, and stating that due to religious observance, all of the Jewish owned stores would be close.Jews enjoyed amicable relationships with their gentile neighbors. Non-Jews contributed significantly to the fundraising drive to build a synagogue in Laurel. In 1911, the Jewish congregation took part in a community wide effort to form a Civic Federation. They are listed among the Progress Club, the Women’s Home Mission Society, and the Catholic Alter Society as participants in the community-wide effort to improve the town of Laurel. Jewish weddings and confirmations were covered prominently by the local newspaper. In 1935, the Laurel Leader Call reported on the confirmation of William Henry Amber, Herbert Joseph, Rosemary Pellman, Irene Percoff, and Harold Maurice Matison. The service was officiated by Rabbi William Ackerman of Meridian, and the newspaper reported that a large crowd of both Jews and non-Jews attended to see the “impressive rites.” After local Arabs attacked Jewish settlers in Palestine in 1929, several non-Jewish Laurel citizens donated money to a relief fund. Jews also contributed to their neighbors’ religious institutions. For instance, Jewish citizens Mr. Aaron Lefkowitz and Mr. Nathan Weinberger donated the primary floral arrangements for the dedication of a local Catholic Church in 1930.

The Civil Rights Era:Laurel was at the epicenter of the Civil Rights struggle. Out of the social unrest emerged the Mississippi White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, a splinter group that turned out to be the most violent sector of the KKK. The founder and leader of the Mississippi White Knights was Sam Bowers, a Laurel businessman and owner of Sambo Amusement Company. In May 1964, Bowers authorized "the elimination" of "Goatee," the Klan's name for Mickey Schwerner, the head of the CORE office in Meridian, along with James Chaney and Andrew Goodman. The purpose of their murder was to send a message to northern Civil Rights workers to stay out of Mississippi. Jones County and the county seat of Laurel were the epicenter of the Klan's violent reign. As the summer of 1964 approached, white Mississippians prepared themselves for what they perceived as an “invasion from the north.” At this time, two very prominent Jewish figures came to Laurel to fight for the Civil Rights movement. New York politician Ed Koch chose to work in Mississippi over Tennessee because he wanted to take on a challenge. He soon found himself defending a group of black and white students who had been assaulted after demanding service at a whites-only soda fountain. After leaving the courtroom, he was able to escape pursuers but the incident left a strong impression of a police state rivaling Nazi Germany. Willie McGee, an African-American resident of Laurel, was indicted by an all-white jury three times for raping a married white woman, despite the evidence that McGee and the woman in question had been living together for four years. The case involving Willie McGee received national and international attention. His attorney was the 28-year-old Jewish woman, Bella S. Abzug, who risked a lot in order to defend him. United States Supreme Court Justice FIRST NAME Burton granted McGee a stay of execution on July 26, 1950. However, once McGee's habeas corpus relief was denied, McGee was executed on May 8, 1951.

A declining community: An explosion of railroad tank cars in 1969 damaged the small synagogue, and the dwindling congregation decided it was futile to rebuild it. The congregation donated all salvageable building materials to two local black churches. The congregation used their remaining funds to create the Knesseth Israel Charitable and Educational Trust Fund, which donated money to twenty-five worthy causes. One of the Torah scrolls found a place in the basement of the local art museum. Currently, the Torah is on permanent loan to the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience, now called the Institute of Southern Jewish life. Today, the last vestiges of Jewish life in Laurel are a vacant lot in the residential area where the synagogue once stood, and a cemetery with 130 vacant plots.

The last Jew of Laurel:Harold Frohman, the self-professed “last Jew in Laurel,” has fond memories of the city of his childhood: “To say that downtown Laurel was thriving at the end of World War II is an understatement.” Harold’s father, Arthur, came to Laurel in 1934 to open "Arthur's Store for Men," which today is one of the two remaining specialty stores in downtown Laurel. Back in those days, Jewish merchants capitalized on the explosive industrial growth of the city: “That my daddy and his Jewish friends were all merchants or businessmen never seemed strange to me,” said Frohman. “Traditionally, when a Jewish male could not find a job…he would simply assess the situation he found himself in, identify a need, then create a business to fill that need for the public.”